Brian Dettmer: book autopsies
"In this work I begin with an existing book and seal its edges, creating an enclosed vessel full of unearthed potential. I cut into the surface of the book and dissect through it from the front. I work with knives, tweezers and other surgical tools to carve one page at a time, exposing each page while cutting around ideas and images of interest. Nothing inside the books is relocated or implanted, only removed. Images and ideas are revealed to expose a book's hidden, fragmented memory. The completed pieces expose new relationships of a book's internal elements exactly where they have been since their original conception."
(Brian Dettmer)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The autopsy as urban spectacle and scientific celebration: Tracing modernity in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
"The representation of the autopsy in CSI is saturated by a deep-seated belief in positivist science, corporeal knowledge and professionalism, but at the same time displays a blatant spectacularization both of the body and the technological inventions used to render it transparent. A discussion about such defining qualities of modernity can create a deeper understanding about CSI both as urban spectacle and scientific celebration. Furthermore, it also highlights the affectivity of the visceral body throughout the history of the autopsy practice. Considering the series' huge success worldwide, the television audience evidently perceives the body to be desirable both as ultimate evidence and as a source of spectacular emotions."
(Sofia Bul, June 2008)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
La Specola: Anatomies In Wax
"The wax collection, unique in the quantity and beauty of its pieces, was created in order to teach anatomy without having to directly observe a cadaver. [...]The over 1400 models, contained in 562 cases, were made between the end of the 18th and first half of the 19th century by the artisans Clemente Susini, Polychrome plaster cast of Clemente Susini, the most famous Florentine wax modeller Francesco Calenzuoli, Luigi Calamai and Egisto Tortori. Guided by Fontana himself these talented modellers worked under the anatomists Tommaso Bonicoli, Filippo Uccelli and the great Paolo Mascagni who dissected cadavers obtained from the Santa Maria Nuova hospital and exposed the part to be modelled. Then the part was reproduced in clay from which a plaster cast was made. Into this the wax - really a mixture of waxes, resins and dyes of which the exact composition is unknown - was poured. Finally, the model was assembled and refined."
(Saulo Bambi)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
